Let’s Rethink This (LRT) is known for its ability to catch people’s attention. Founder Jerry Ashton had these credentials safely in hand by the time he retired from the day-to-day work involved in co-founding the national charity RIP Medical Debt (RIP) with the intention to perform similar feats for organizations poised to bring about profound social and economic change – but not having a platform from which to attract all-important public notice.

As Jerry can attest to from personal experience in his struggles to raise awareness (and funds) for his charity, “If they don’t know about you, they can’t do anything about you.” Based on RIP’s success to date – abolishing over $8 billion in medical debt for over 5.5 million Americans – he and his team at RIP solved that problem, and then some.

Jerry and the team of co-creators he gathered together at LRT set about to use his hard-earned tools to remedy similar problems for industry “Solution Providers” who had the goods – but not the audience. LRT, through its Searchlight/Spotlight/Ignite process steps in to fill that void. Here’s what LRT had to do to develop that magic since its founding in early 2021.

Step One – print/online journalism

LRT’s first step was to install Our Newspaper at our website to ensure that worthwhile articles about our partners and members would always find a home. That done, and as a former Navy Journalist (JO2), Jerry’s next step was to approach Russell Midori, co-founder of the 700-member Military Veterans in Journalism (MVJ) organization to partner with us to ensure our members and advocates would have access to seasoned reporters.

Step Two – Video interviews and podcasts

Cary Harrison brought the goods and his credentials to his task of experimenting with doing one-off videos and podcasts. It was fledgling, but brought us to where we are in our ability to produce an entire one-hour program on public radio. 

Step Three – graphic novel/cartoon capabilities

Cary introduced RIP to veteran artist Victor Guiza which brought about another novel fit – cartoons and colorful strips that do a better and more compelling job of explaining a complex story than any news article. Using a Harlem entrepreneur and a woman physician patient advocate as proof-of-concept, his renderings drew rave reviews and proved that his subjects could attract new audiences. Check that need off as filled.

Step Four – branding and marketing

Phaedra Poliquin was among the earliest additions to the LRT staff of co-creators, and a find she was. Even while launching LRT, she filled the role of CMO for the Anmol Network and was instrumental in helping raise $1M in investment for them. 

Step Five – technology infrastructure and mentoring capability

That would be me, Joel Stevens – the earliest to join the LRT team to make sure that the organization had well-structured and eye-catching websites that its partners could depend on as well as serve as referent examples of our abilities in branding, marketing and community-creating.

Step Six – an evolutionary leap – Rethinking Heroes 

For the first time we are aware of, a drive-time public radio hour is devoted to veteran issues and the Solution Providers dedicated to reducing veteran suicide, abolishing their medical debt and in so many other ways making their lives easier. Cary Harrison hosts Rethinking Heroes (RH) on famed LA public radio KPFK 90.7 FM every Friday morning from 9-10 a.m PST/noon EST. 

With the help and encouragement of KPFK, we have used the month of February to test the concept and are getting rave reviews – and an uptick in donations to the station. No need anymore to be silent about this important work.

Want to listen to it in streaming audio at those times? Simply click this link. What makes it so special? No woe-is-me and platitudes and stereotypes. These are real veterans and their advocates telling stories and providing solutions you will never hear on MSM. 

The other thing that sets RH apart? At the end of every month, with just a bit of assistance from our listeners and co-producers, we will officially abolish $1 million in medical debt across the USA on behalf of our veterans. Having served, and still serving.

Have you ever noticed (I have) that journalists and media folk seem to be stories in themselves…oftentimes having lives and having a personal history more interesting than the stories about others that they are busy getting “out there?”

Proving my observation is Caron LeNoir whose own adventures include (to list only a few) a 14 year military history of service (1994-2008) in both the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army, being confirmed as being a fully disabled veteran only after suing the VA to attain that deserved status, being a self-taught computer programmer, performing a public service announcement for the FTC warning about veteran charity scams, surviving five years of homelessness to create a successful path towards entrepreneurial journalism including owning her own radio station, etc., etc.

But her present efforts, built on this foundation which includes her membership in the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and more recently in Military Veterans in Journalism (MVJ) deserve a look. 

Caron attracted LRT’s notice when she and several other veteran journalist members of MVJ participated in the launch of LRT’s new Rethinking Heroes (RH) public radio broadcast series on famed KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles, CA which hits the air every Friday morning drivetime from 9-10 a.m. PST (noon EST).  (Want to listen in at those times? Here’s the direct internet link: https://www.kpfk.org/player/)

VMJ is placing its members at the top of the hour to read the news – this time items about and for the veteran audience while; a unique way to provide broadcast exposure for their members while supporting a national campaign called Veteran Mission Possible and its mission to bring greater awareness to suicide and medical debt in that community and celebrating the “Solution Providers” that come up with remedies.

Naturally, Ms. LeNoir was among those selected.

“It was a rush,” Caron said of this opportunity to deliver veteran-centric news to KPFK’s listeners locally and nationally through public radio affiliates. “It reconfirmed my own determination to see that veterans like myself get greater experience and exposure within the media world. I personally felt revitalized.”

Entrepreneurial Journalism?

In bygone days, journalism and entrepreneur would never be included in the same sentence. Entrepreneurs “did” it, and journo’s “reported” it. No longer. The days of a secure position in any sector of media, whether print, broadcast or otherwise, is no longer assured or even possible.

U.S. newsroom employment has fallen 26% since 2008. Major media outlets are announcing major layoffs, print cuts and hiring freezes. That’s a strong hit against veterans attempting to work in those industries, considering only 2% of media employees are veteran in spite of vets being 8% of the U.S. population. This requires a new breed of creatives. Many organizations such as NABJ and MVJ are training its members to be more business-minded as they become guns-for-hire. (We at Let’s Rethink This took note of this new environment and created Our Newspaper to ensure that its writers and contributors would have an assured outlet for their stories.)

This where Caron steps up. By way of podcasts, speaking engagements and cultivating a clientele of businesses clamoring to be noticed but unaware of how to present themselves as a news story, she serves as savant and consultant…and reaps the rewards.

“Profit is great for my complexion,” she cooes. “That I help my clients bring in more work and have greater success for themselves make it glow all the more.” 

Impact Journalism and ROI is the today’s journo’s new-new thing! Pay attention.

The rates of veteran suicide are unacceptably high. Veterans deserve the best care. They sacrifice so much for all of us, and they deserve much better care than they’re getting for the consequences of their sacrifices. One organization that’s seeking to address this problem is Let’s Rethink This.

I work for a company called First Tracks. It’s a public benefit corporation. And our work is featured in this article by Jerry Ashton, the founder of Let’s Rethink This. First Tracks is about putting together mental health solutions for employers that work. We’re focused on making sure people who are in the most need get the right help. Often, that is veterans.

I’m thrilled that our work has been mentioned in this dispatch, and I hope you follow along, because this is a health problem we can’t afford to ignore.

Jerry Ashton is one of the people behind RIP Medical Debt. This organization is responsible for eliminating over $7 billion in medical debt. Now, his focus is on ending veterans’ medical debt and ending veteran suicide, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with Jerry and everyone who is on this mission to help our veterans!

You can read the article here!

It’s a Wonderful Life and Veteran Suicide

It’s that terrible/joyful holiday period when we push aside our pains and disappointments to join with the joy of the season and imagine a coming year full of wonders and possibilities.

Of those pains here in America, none is greater than that of the specter of suicide, especially those among our military veterans – now averaging 44 per day. 44 per day!!!

Can we ever hope for a time when those numbers abate, and the tragedies recede? Yes, if we just take lessons from the much-beloved movie classic, It’s a Wonderful Life and bring them into practice in our own lives. Read more in Jerry’s new article!

—Owen Scott Muir, M.D.

I need you to do one thing—Spread the word!

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It’s that terrible/joyful holiday period when we push aside our pains and disappointments to join with the joy of the season and imagine a coming year full of wonders and possibilities.

Of those pains here in America, none is greater than that of the specter of suicide, especially those among our military veterans — now averaging 44 per day. 44 per day!!!

Can we ever hope for a time when those numbers abate, and the tragedies recede? Yes, if we just take lessons from the much-beloved movie classic, It’s a Wonderful Life and bring them into practice in our own lives. Let me draw from that story.

Continue reading at this link.

Healthcare expert and podcaster Michael McLafferty questions two veterans and their civilian supporter as to their ambitious campaign to both reduce the rate of veteran suicide and to abolish – literally – the unpaid and unpayable medical debt owed by vets through the VA system.

To put the suicide problem into perspective, out of our population of over 330 million, there are 1.4 million Americans in the military and19 million Americans are veterans. But, they contribute to 20 percent of all suicides. At the horrific rate of 44 per day. 44 PER DAY!

Concerning the second evil - veteran/military bad debt - an estimated $6 billion is held by the VA hospital system. Despite highly publicized recent VA and governmental declarations to forgive or ameliorate this burden, little has been accomplished. Hardly the best way to say “Thank you for your service.”

The solutions to these seemingly intractable problems, as claimed by Michael’s guests Marine veteran Rick Johnson of VOI Health, Navy veteran Jerry Ashton of Let’s Rethink This and civilian and ardent veteran advocate Cary Harrison an award-winning Public Radio host, are innovative and potentially game-changing in their impact.

Their chosen platform is the recently launched Veteran Mission Possible (VMP) which describes itself as a collaborative veteran advocacy campaign – “A Veteran and Civilian Effort to Right The Wrongs experienced by the nation’s finest.”

This is where they intend to get the attention of the movers and shakers in the VA and attract the funding and partners needed to crystalize and ignite their work. Take a listen and visit VMP to determine if their message resonates and deserves your support.